Cream of Tomato Soup

If you have a love for tomato soup, you will go into orbit over this one. Thick and richly flavored, this soup is like none that comes from a can, a box, or the frozen food section of your local grocery.

If you own The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas, you will find this recipe on page 72. I have been pretty faithful to the ingredients of Anna’s recipe but have drastically changed the preparation. My method takes a fraction of the time and gets the same great taste with a simpler approach.

You surely understand that if you are making tomato soup with fresh garden tomatoes, it will take some time. That’s a given. But most of the time is the cook time: the tomatoes are in the pot on the stove. If you are in the kitchen tinkering around on things, keeping an occasional eye on the tomato pot is no deal at all.

The other given is that a great tomato soup demands garden fresh tomatoes. If you have the mother-lode of tomatoes coming in, you can take this soup to one point in preparation and then freeze what is actually a concentrate. Directions for this follow in the steps below.

Given the richness of this soup, I suggest serving it in small bowls as a first course — a stunning, remarkable first course. Open a special meal with this tomato soup and no one will forget it.

Cream of Tomato Soup Ingredients

3 pounds ripe, red tomatoes

1 large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon crushed dried basil

2 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons tomato paste (I use my own homemade stash from the freezer)

2 cups whipping cream

2 teaspoons sucanat or rapadura sugar

2 tablespoons bourbon or brandy

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: 1 heaping tablespoon potato flour, 1/2 cup water

Fresh basil and cracked pepper to garnish

Cream of Tomato Soup Steps

Wash the tomatoes. Remove the stem ends and cut into quarters.

Place the cut tomatoes into a large pot to cook. Turn the heat on low. Mash two tomatoes to release a bit of juice so the initial heat does not cause any burning. Simmer slowly until the tomatoes are reduced to about 1/3. Plan about an hour for this.

In a small skillet saute the onions and basil in butter until the onions just begin to brown. Add them to the tomato pot along with the tomato paste and cook about another ten minutes.

Put this tomato mix through a sieve, removing the tomato skins, seeds and dry onion. You now have a very thick tomato sauce. (If you are making huge amounts for the freezer, this is the point to stop and let the sieved mixture cool for packaging.)

Return the sieved tomato mix to the pot. Keep the flame on low while you heat the cream in the skillet used for the onions. Cook the cream down to about half.

Add the bourbon and sugar to the tomato mix. Stir. The alcohol will cook off while the cream reduces.

Stir the reduced cream into the tomato mix. Salt and pepper to taste.

The soup is now ready. If you like your tomato soup with a bit more body, you can mix the potato flour with water and slowly stir into the soup. Cook another five minutes to thicken.

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